This morning I went out to my beehive and there were a few dead bee larvas at the hive entrance and no bees around. Right away I feared colony collapse right here in my own backyard. So, standing there in my bathrobe and slippers I popped the top off the hive which immediately buzzed to life with thousands of happy healthy bees inside and quickly coming out. So I dropped my phone (I had it out to take pictures) and ran inside. The bees clustered around the outside of the hive and all over my phone (which fell right on top of the open hive).

Knowing I would need my phone soon I suited up with double gloves, my hard hat, my coveralls and my bee hood. I grabbed my smoker, filled it with dry leaves, and headed to the hive. I used a small pry bar to pull out one of the 36 hive frames and it was perfect! All honey and wax - no brood (babies) or eggs. Just pure honey. I replaced the frame with an empty wood frame got my phone, added the additional story on their house (I had one more bee box and this hive needs to more space in their house) and closed up the top.

Fresh honey for these vegans!

I'm guessing there was probably 20 or more times the amount of honey in the hive than I took. I'm really happy about how healthy the hive is.

The beehive had three boxes. I added a fourth. Each box has 12 wooden frames like the one below that I took today. I replaced the frame I took with an empty wood frame (no honey or hive, just the wooden rectangle with a hole in the middle).

our house

our vision

we are doing a green renovation on our 1876 victorian farmhouse using almost all salvaged materials while transforming the 11,400 square foot lot into an urban food forest to satisfy our big vegan appetites. it is definitely an adventure!